Whether you are working too much, balancing work and family, or simply want to get more out of each and every day, research proves that practicing simple things like being more mindful, communicating what you are grateful for, and simply injecting more joy into everyday tasks can impact everything from your heart health to forging a better connection with those around you. It’s incredible to learn about the proven scientific evidence that can physiologically change your mind and your body! Learn how to share this in your workplace and build a unique culture of wellness in this webinar by Julie Bruns. Find the recorded webinar here: http://www.humanresourcestoday.com/frs/8954801/promoting-a-culture-of-workplace-wellness-through-mindfulness--gratitude-and-joy

1. Promoting a Culture of Workplace
Wellness through Mindfulness, Gratitude
and Joy
Julie Bruns Shelley Trout
With: Moderated by:
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3. 3
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4. About Julie Bruns
Julie Bruns is the Organizational Development and Training Lead for an IT consulting company, with over 15 years of
learning and development experience. She has a passion for delivering professional development workshops, and
evolving people and their business skills through engaging, energetic seminars. Connecting and inspiring teams is at
the core of what she does every day.
About Shelley Trout
Shelley went to UC Berkeley and majored in Anthropology & Archaeology. After working at the Center of Digital
Archaeology, she became fascinated with digital representations of personality and culture, and now leads Webinar
Production at Aggregage, providing some of the most interesting thought-leaders across a wide variety of industries with
a space to celebrate the diversity, depth, and experience of their professional cultures, personalities, and passions.

5. 5
Promoting a Culture of Workplace Wellness through
Mindfulness, Gratitude and Joy

6. Meditation:
1: a discourse intended to express its
author's reflections or to guide others in
contemplation
2: the act or process of meditating
Mindfulness:
1: the quality or state of being mindful
2: the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened
or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences
on a moment-to-moment basis; also: such a state of awareness
“A practice that dates back to the 1970s, using
the term first coined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who
defined it as "paying attention on purpose, in
the present moment and non-judgmentally,
to the unfolding of experience moment to
moment.“

7. Calms Nerves
Helps Control
Pain
Greater Well
Being
Reduces Stress
Promotes
Emotional
Health
Improves
Sleep
Lengthens
Attention
Span
Controls
Anxiety
CompassionClarity
Self-
Awareness
Shawn Achor:
“…mindfulness is a credit card for
resilience; the more you spend, the
more rewards you get at the end of
the month.”
Health Benefits

8. Work Benefits
 Lower healthcare costs
 Increased work satisfaction
 Social connection: one of the greatest
predictors of long-term happiness
 More productive, increased memory
 Higher levels of engagement
“Research also shows that, in addition to slowing you down, multitasking lowers your IQ. A
study at the University of London found that participants who multitasked during cognitive
tasks experienced IQ score declines that were similar to what they'd expect if they had smoked
marijuana or stayed up all night. IQ drops of 15 points for multitasking men lowered their
scores to the average range of an 8-year-old child.”
Opposed to Mindfulness, multi-tasking damages
your brain, lowers your IQ and your EQ

9. More Benefits
 Reprograms your brain (more gray matter)
 Most successful people mediate 1, 2, 3x/day
 Reduces activity in sympathetic nervous system (fight
or flight), increases activity in parasympathetic
nervous system (calm and relaxed feeling)
 Anti-stress serum
 Calm down after stress more quickly
Meditation has been linked to larger amounts of
gray matter in the hippocampus and frontal
areas of the brain. More gray matter can lead to
more positive emotions, longer-lasting
emotional stability and heightened focus during
daily life.

10.  Set your intention:
 You become what you think about all day long
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
 Practice Daily:
 21 days to form a new habit
 More effective daily vs 1 hour/week
 Build this strength like a muscle
 Stick with it; a busy mind is normal
 Set yourself up for success
 Find a quiet place (same time/place)
 Take it with you into your daily life
5 TIPS – BEFORE WORK
And when you meditate first thing, you infuse your day with a sense of clarity and
peace that can help you deal with any stress that gets thrown your way.

11.  5 minutes per day
 Take vacation days
 Avoid reading email first thing
in the morning
 Turn off all notifications
 Stop multi-tasking
 Put it on your calendar
5 TIPS – AT WORK

12.  Why Gratitude?
Gratitude

13. Several studies have shown that practicing gratitude leads to:
 Better overall physical health and better sleep
 More optimistic outlook on life and upcoming events
 More likely to make progress in achieving important goals
 Increase in alertness, attention, determination and energy
 Increase in compassionate acts and sense of being connected
to others
 Enhanced empathy
 Reduced aggression
 Improved self esteem
 Better mental health
Benefits of Gratitude
“New research shows that you can help others be more productive by getting them to
reflect on the good things going on in their life.” Shawn Achor

14.  Every day write it or say it; gratitude requires practice
 Do it first thing to set the tone before anything else gets in your brain
 Turn a negative into a positive
 Say what you want, not what you don’t want
 Give a least 1 compliment daily (directly or general appreciation)
 Ask yourself: What can I learn? What will I be grateful for?
 Vow to not complain, criticize, or gossip for a week
 Sound genuinely happy to hear from/see people
 Join a cause important to you (donate money/time/talent)
Cultivating Gratitude

15. Definition:
-the emotion evoked by well-being,
success, or good fortune or by the prospect
possessing what one desires: delight
1. the expression or exhibition of such
emotion: gaiety
2. a state of happiness or felicity: bliss
3. a source or cause of delight
Synonyms:
 crow, exuberate, glory, jubilate, exult, kvell,
rejoice, triumph
What is Joy?
The difference between happiness
and joy:
 “Happiness is tied to
circumstances and joyfulness is
tied to spirit and gratitude.”
 “According to my Random
House dictionary, joy means,
‘The emotion of great delight or
happiness caused by something
good or satisfying.’”

16.  JOY 1: Find the Pleasure in Learning – find the pleasing things at work!
 JOY 2: Give Students Choice – create choices at work!
 JOY 3: Let Students Create Things – create things at work!
 JOY 4: Show Off Student Work – celebrate achievements at work!
 JOY 5: Take Time to Tinker – reflect about things that have gone well at work!
 JOY 6: Make School Spaces Inviting – create an inviting workspace!
 JOY 7: Get Outside – go outside regularly (at work or at home)!
 JOY 8: Read Good Books – read good books/articles about what you love!
 JOY 9: Offer More Gym and Arts Classes – take an art class or exercise more!
 JOY 10: Transform Assessment – assess yourself as you go, ask for feedback!
 JOY 11: Have Some Fun Together – have some fun at work (with each other)!
Why Not Joy at Work?
When
people go
to work,
they
shouldn’t
have to
leave their
hearts at
home.” -
Betty
Bender

17.  “Ultimately, I realized that while happiness is a choice, it is not just an individual choice,
it is an interconnected one. This is because when you choose to act with gratitude or
joy, you make joy and gratitude easier for others, who in turn give you more reasons to
be grateful and joyous.“ Shawn Achor
 Shawn describes a virtuous cycle, “a positive feedback loop where by making others
better leads to more resources, energy, and experiences that make you better, fueling
the cycle again. Thus, making others better takes your success to the next level.“ Shawn
Achor
 “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not
to utter words, but to live by them.” John F. Kennedy
 “Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what
you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." Oprah Winfrey
 “Your success, your well being, and your performance are all connected to that of the
people around you.” Shawn Achor
Summary

18. 18
Q&A
Shelley Trout
With: Moderated by:
Organizational Development and Training Lead,
SWC Technology Partners
Linkedin page: julie-bruns-46030b19/
Email: julie.bruns@ymail.com
Julie Bruns
Editor, Aggregage
Linkedin page: in/shelleytrout/
Twitter ID: @hrposts
Email: shelley.trout@aggregage.com
Website: aggregage.com
www.humanresourcestoday.com/webinar-series/workplacewellness